Shriekback S & D

Search: "My Spine (Is The Bassline)", _Oil and Gold_, _Big Night Music_ Destroy: "Shark Walk" on _Go Bang!_. Actually, probably 50-75% of that album could be flushed down the toilet and I wouldn't cry.

mmm Shriekback i love you...

i sourced a remastered cd copy of jam science a while ago, and all this talk of g04 on another thread today made me really want to hear the band that always meant a lot more to me in the discovery of the bassline than those overly referenced others ..

and damn .. in 2005 'jam science' sounds awewsome. totally.

'oil and gold' next.

this could take some time shift from the playlist.

i have dug out the live album (Hatfield Poly 1984!) and once i get past the pile of todays stuff i am defiitley blasting that one .. in fact i may just ignore the post and go straight to the past.

i have no memory of that album despite playing the cassette version about 3 times in a row to make sure i wasn't going mad.

is it as bad as its suposed to be .. are there no Big Night Music stylings ? (new stuff supposedly revisits that type of atmospheric groove !)

as is the custom - Malicious Damage have done a lovely job with the packaging (cardboard case, with inserts providing lyrics and details).

i feel good.

album out soon on malicious damage ..

This is maybe the best news I've heard all week.

I love that I called Radiohead a fatuous sacred cow back in 2001.

Malicious Damage Uber Alles.

have you heard the album, upthread you mention re liking oil and gold.

think there are chunks of similarity on this new stuff ?

Okay, so there's now a newer one on Malicious Damage, Glory Bumps. And it's pretty good so far.

it's funny what 6yrs difference can make in musical tastes and knowledge.

somebody named Keith LeBlanc = haha

prototype of the horrible '80s version of king crimson = wtf?

wasn't 2001 the height of postpunk resurfacing? these guys were ex gang of four dudes. so much hate. confusing.

So there've been TWO new albums since Naked Apes & Pond Life? Dang. I'll have to get those. I have a special fondness for the Shrieks and their green feathers and their eels.

A few years ago I bought the website-only CDR remaster of Jam Science. For the most part it sounds good, except for a couple of tracks which are obviously from not-great vinyl.

Andrews without Allen and Marsh... it's very sad, those three were the perfect triad for this band.

I'm really enjoying the Veils album, and when I found out they're lead by Andrews' son, it got me to look up the old man, and some of the newer stuff is quite good. "Bonehead" is right up there with Nemesis for the Talking Heads-in-S&M-gear vibe.

Feel your way around, feel your way around!!

haha I was about to bitch about "Shark Walk" but scrolled up first to make sure I hadn't done so already

The early odds and sods are rounded up on "The Y Records Years", search that.

I'd opt for the 'Natural History' 2CD rather than 'Y Records Years' for an odds-and-sods.

WE GET IT RIGHT SOMETIMES, WE FEEL THE FRIGHT SOMETIMES
WE SEE THE FISH BELOW THE ICE SOMETIMES

one of the few records that can cheer me just by thinking about it

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I loved these guys from the instant I heard "Nemesis" but it was revelatory buying Oil and Gold hearing the 1-2-3 punch of "Malaria"/"Everything That Rises Must Converge"/"Fish Below The Ice" for the first time. That is easily one of my favorite albums.

Also, eels + green feathers on that album cover, so awesome.

The high points of Jam Science are a little higher, but Oil & Gold is better front to back.

I loved these guys from the instant I heard "Nemesis" but it was revelatory buying Oil and Gold hearing the 1-2-3 punch of "Malaria"/"Everything That Rises Must Converge"/"Fish Below The Ice" for the first time. That is easily one of my favorite albums.

when it was new-ish I would routinely listen to it and wonder: like, why isn't this huge? me & my friend Allyson thought it was pretty much the best album in the world, and they played "Nemesis" in the Portland club where I danced, but it seemed like it never really got a head of steam under it.

I'm living in a neon house
I'm living on avalanche row
I'm living in hangover city

AND ALL THESE UNFORESEEN THINGS TUMBLE DOWN

WE HAD SOME GOOD MACHINES. BUT THEY DON'T WORK NO MORE.

2 B THE DALEKS OF GOD.

I used to bawl like an emo to that jam Jon L, fuck yeah

also much love to these guys for introducing me to the word "parthenogenesis"

Yeah, Oil & Gold and Big Night Music were both languish-in-bedroom soundtracks for me too. Also i had just got my first four track and I tried so mawkishly to imitate their 'tiny bells' and 'clicking sticks' trip...

I do think 'Nemesis' achieved a pretty good saturation level. Most people I know who were awake in the 80s know that song.

But the albums, and the Shrieks in general, there was just no way to sell megaunits of that kind of wry perversion.

Here's where I opine that about half of Sacred City is brilliant and it's well worth the $0.99 for a used Amazon copy...

so, was the recent 'oil and gold' reissue on cherry red a remaster that sounded better than the cd-r edition ?

i never got it, as there was little on the extras that interested me.

however, i have got the bit between my teeth, so need to check.

and, ohhhhh for a expanded remaster/reissue of 'big night music'

Were there big night music b-sides?

no idea.

i got the album, and i felt good.

but surely there has to be stuff for an expanded reissue of that album ?

i mean it was a major label release, so, there has to have been some extras made ..

also, if ever an album would benefit from a proper beatles-styled remaster, this would be one ?

yeah it's a record with loads and loads of great detail. I suppose it's their 'Skylarking' in a weird way (then again I bought them on the same day when both were new so that might be just me). 'Pretty Little Things' goes on my 'Jon Lewis' 50 Perfect Recordings' list if I ever become the New Yorker's pop critic.

feels weird.
you : nyc.
me : middle of nowhere yorkshire dales.
connection : album by a bunch of hopefuls.
and yes, despite bh hating all of their prior weirdo pop-funk thing, 'big night music' was an album that she loved, and so became a lot more special to us.

sorry you are not happy re the reissue.
have you contacted the powers that be and asked for a refund ?
i'm sure they would oblige.

― mark e, Thursday, 9 October 2014 18:11

No, I greatly appreciate the effort and I try to offer $upport for all Shriekback things, I would never ask for a refund! Also I just bought the 'Life In The Loading Bay' CD which seems to be available again in limited quantities - I had already purchased the download when it came out. I do love the HoMH remixes, and they are new to me. All that money that was thrown around in the eighties and no one made extra copies of the master (I clearly don't know how that was done, legal intricacies, etc.)?

BNM and Skylarking were big deal records that year among my group of high school friends in Minnesota. I was the tastemaker that time. Was not able to put the Blue Nile over to the same extent with those guys though.

The tapes may not even exist anymore-- there are other masters of similar vintage by other bands which are already MIA. Or it could just be rights. I can't imagine that the cleanest obtainable vinyl of JS wouldn't sound pretty decent though.

answer why the recent reissues were vinyl rips provided here :

http://shriekbackmusic.tumblr.com/

my reissued CARE release arrived today.

never had this album properly, so, chuffed to have it at last, and to be putting money directly into the gangs pocket.

Oh man, great link. I'm reading the new track by track notes for Care. I love these guys so much.

New record done in a proper studio and engineered by the Care guy? Yes pls.

yeah I skimmed that up to the track-by-track and thought "I'm gonna save this to read when I get home"

you get the track by track in the care booklet ..
and more !
saving it for the weekend and a proper listening session

and dug out cormorant for first time in years
sounded great .. so yes please to new material recorded on proper studio !

on = in

I keep forgetting whether it was cormorant or glory bumps that I dug. One was great, the other kinda shriek by numbers. Still don't have loading bay!

Btw, Sacred City has become available from digital vendors now. Yes, it's the album right after Go Bang. No, it does not suck.

Shriek by numbers (probably Glory Bumps) is still pretty good.

I passed on the new edition of Care - I'm one of the lucky sods who has the Australian CD that was released in the early 90s, and whatever's missing is on the excellent "Y Years" compilation. All pop and crackle free.

I passed on the new edition of Care - I'm one of the lucky sods who has the Australian CD that was released in the early 90s, and whatever's missing is on the excellent "Y Years" compilation. All pop and crackle free.

did not know there was a cd edition.
which therefore raises the question as to why they didn't use this as the source and remaster this edition for the rerelease.
i mean, if they did not have a copy of the cd themselves, i'm sure if they put out an appeal a fan would have lent a copy to them.

Certainly a question I always have when artists master from vinyl. Even for Jam Science, most of the tracks are on compilation CDs and clean fan rips have circulated for years. A Facebook appeal would bring tons of options and great results.

The upcoming album, "Without Real String Or Fish", is due in March. It got me thinking that there hasn't been a Shriekback compilation covering their last 29 years (!!). Towards that end, here's my proposal for a Barry Andrews/Shriekback anthology:

Exquisite Corpse, the music of Barry Andrews and Shriekback

Disc 1:
Super-Tuff - XTC
Rossmore Road (NW1) - Barry Andrews
Sexthinkone (from Tench)
Accretions (from Tench)
My Spine Is The Bassline (non LP)
Lined Up (from Care)
Cleartrails (from Care)
Working On The Ground (non LP)
Hand On My Heart (from Jam Science)
Partyline (from Jam Science)
Mercy Dash (from Jam Science)
Nemesis (from Oil & Gold)
Fish Below The Ice (from Oil & Gold)
Faded Flowers (from Oil & Gold)
Black Light Trap (from Big Night Music)
Gunning For The Buddha (from Big Night Music)
Sticky Jazz (from Big Night Music)
Shark Walk (from Go Bang!)
White Out (non LP)

Disc 2:
Signs (from Sacred City)
Exquisite Corpse (from Sacred City)
Beatles Zebra Crossing (from Sacred City)
Pond Life (from Naked Apes And Pond Life)
Invisible Rays (from Naked Apes And Pond Life)
Berlin (from Naked Apes And Pond Life)
Captain Cook (non LP)
More Heat Than Light (from Having A Moment)
God's Gardenias (from Having A Moment)
Sea Theory (from Cormorant)
Reason With The Beast (from Cormorant)
Voiled Karletus (from Cormorant)
Hooray For Everything (from Glory Bumps)
Mahalia (from Glory Bumps)
Squanderer (from Glory Bumps)
Semidelicious (from Life In The Loading Bay)
Running With The Mothmen (from Life In The Loading Bay)
The Flowers Of Angst (from Life In The Loading Bay)
No Fool Boletus - Anaxaton6

Your antho is rather short on tiny-sticks mode shriekback I dunno if I can trust you!

Just trying to get a good sampling across their entire body of work. By all means, suggest improvements!

Mainly I'd exchange running on the rocks and sticky jazz for reptiles & I and underwaterboys. Otherwise a pretty good playlist!

Thanks, I took your advice and removed the 3 non-Shriekback tracks and one of the Glory Bumps tracks. I replaced the Big Night Music tracks with the two you mentioned, added "Sway", "A King Of Fascination", "Everything That Rises Must Converge" and "My Vast Behavior", a track from the last albums bonus disc. Definitely stronger for it! I do enjoy making these sort of compilations.

I am strongly of the opinion that "Sticky Jazz" should be there over "Reptiles & I" and slightly less strongly of the opinion that "Running on the Rocks" belongs regardless of what other BNM tracks are selected.

"Big Night Music" is a tough one to pick highlights from, frankly, as it's very consistent. I could make an argument for "Cradle Song" and "The Shining Path", too. But for me it's got to have "Black Light Trap" and "Underwaterboys", plus one more. I always felt that "Running On The Rocks" was a retread of stuff on "Oil & Gold".

My "Reptiles" advocacy is slightly personal (I adore everything about the arrangement & production of that track) but also a bit objective I hope -- it was the first appearance of that smaller-frame semi-acoustic-but-still-with-wacky-noises mode of theirs. I feel like the "big" tracks on BNM are family enough that only one of them needs to be on an overview comp.

(however, by choosing "Reptiles" over "Pretty Little Things" for the small-shriek slot, we still don't have an example of the important "tiny sticks" technique do we? Which track on Oil & Gold had tiny sticks on it? I can't remember)

"Faded Flowers"

oh right! We're good then.

this is an impossible task.
there are some albums that are complete and cannot be broken up.
jam science/oil and gold/big night music are examples of this.

^^^ and, I have to say based on my first full listen to it in over a decade, Sacred City!

It's true, those albums are all fantastic pieces unto themselves. But it's great to have a cross-section of an artists entire work, that's why I love well-chosen anthologies and singles comps. And there's been NOTHING covering these lads over most of their career. And I like the challenge of picking a limited-but-excellent number of tracks, it makes you really consider an artists best work.

I don't know what I'd take out to get "Malaria" in, but "Malaria" is one of my favorite songs of all time so I want that one. Maybe "Gunning for the Buddha" which has a nice sound but never really did the job for me

I'd lose "Shark Walk". In fact, I like to pretend that Go Bang! never happened.

I considered that, but that's always the question when compiling - to ignore an artists nadir or not. Even the latest Killing Joke singles comp included stuff from "Outside The Gate"!

Ok, I took a bunch of your suggestions and also remembered the excellent closing track on "Go Bang" - "Dust And A Shadow". Here's my revised anthology - I just gave it a listen and it's 2.5 hours of smiles!

Disc 1:
Sexthinkone (from Tench)
A Kind Of Fascination (from Tench)
Accretions (from Tench)
My Spine Is The Bassline (non LP)
Lined Up (from Care)
Cleartrails (from Care)
Sway (from Care)
Working On The Ground (non LP)
Hand On My Heart (from Jam Science)
Partyline (from Jam Science)
Mercy Dash (from Jam Science)
Everything That Rises Must Converge (from Oil & Gold)
Fish Below The Ice (from Oil & Gold)
Faded Flowers (from Oil & Gold)
Nemesis (from Oil & Gold)
Black Light Trap (from Big Night Music)
Underwaterboys (from Big Night Music)
The Reptiles And I (from Big Night Music)
Dust And A Shadow (from Go Bang!)

Disc 2:
White Out (non LP)
Signs (from Sacred City)
Exquisite Corpse (from Sacred City)
Beatles Zebra Crossing (from Sacred City)
Pond Life (from Naked Apes And Pond Life)
Invisible Rays (from Naked Apes And Pond Life)
Berlin (from Naked Apes And Pond Life)
Captain Cook (non LP)
More Heat Than Light (from Having A Moment)
God's Gardenias (from Having A Moment)
Sea Theory (from Cormorant)
Reason With The Beast (from Cormorant)
Voiled Karletus (from Cormorant)
Hooray For Everything (from Glory Bumps)
Mahalia (from Glory Bumps)
Semidelicious (from Life In The Loading Bay)
Running With The Mothmen (from Life In The Loading Bay)
The Flowers Of Angst (from Life In The Loading Bay)
My Vast Behaviour (from Life In The Loading Bay bonus disc)

jam science is a fucking brilliant album.

It sure as shit is. Some good stuff on the shriek tumblr about the making of, btw.

Anyone get the outtakes and demos comp they just put out? (very limited run. I wish I could afford a cd right now)

The new album, "Without Real String Or Fish", is another fine entry in their catalog. Carl's back full force this time around. Fun video for "Now Those Days Are Gone".

String...Fish is great yeah. Totally recommend.

Warning: Utter pedantry ahead.

The Shriek lads have been really busy releasing limited reissues of their early back catalog. Unfortunately, these have been a bit shoddy with obvious vinyl transfers and incorrect versions. The new release, "Peel Sessions And Singularities", caused me to take a closer look at the recent releases. Here's what I found:

Care remaster:
"Feelers" is the Can't Speak Mix, quite crackly though.
Note that I didn't buy this and haven't done a thorough review, I just noticed this in my investigation into "Feelers".

Tench remaster:
"Sexthinkone" is the 7" version (3:39), not the original EP version (4:23).
"Accretions" is the Infinite remix (4:28), not the original EP version (4:16).
"So Hard So Hard" clips the first few seconds from the CDr version I have.
"Accretions (remix)" is the same as the Infinite remix, thus a duplicate of the previous version.

Peel Sessions And Singularities:
6 Peel sessions tracks appeared on the "Vicissitudes" CDr; new are "Faded Flowers", "Feelers" and "Fish Below The Ice".
The Peel version of "Newhome" on Vicissitudes sounds like a radio recording with a crossfade at the beginning whereas this new version is clean. Everything else has similar sound quality.
The Peel version of "Feelers" (5:07) sounds identical to the single version (5:01). I have a 3:54 MP3 alleging to be the Peel version which sounds different from every other mix I've got.
"Sexthinkone (exotic mix)" is the same as the 12" mix.
"Accretions (original)" is the missing Tench version, albeit crackly.
"Lined Up (instrumental)" is 4:17 whereas the 12" version is 5:00, it's a MUCH earlier fade.
Everything else is solid and crackle-free.

Oh, and the "Secrets Of The City" reissue compared to the CDr changes a bunch of track titles and excludes the brief 'Interlude 2'.

Would you say the new peel disc is worth getting

I gather it will sell out soon

It's nice to have it all in one place, and it supports them, so - yeah.

Shriekback have a kickstarter going to fund the logistics of a world tour with the roster to include Barry, Carl, Martyn, Mike Cozzi, the Partridge sisters and a bassist who isn't dave allen. Basically the same lineup that toured Oil and Gold except for dave. I don't have the link handy but they are past the halfway mark.

here it is

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1283576192/shriekback-live

while i will always love this band, their recent money grab groove feels weird.
if you want to play a few gigs then play a few gigs.
fans who can sort things out will sort the rest out ..

It's East European, West European, it's moving so fast!

they met their goal and tickets for london glasgow and manchester go on sale tomorrow already. i would assume/hope more tba

Shriekback business:

Just out, new studio album "Why Anything? Why This?" First listen indicates it's solid but it needs more listens. Some tracks sounds like retreads of previous material, others are quite excellent like "And The Rain" led by Carl. No matter what, Martyn Barker is one of his generations best drummers.

Last year they put out "The Elated World", a compilation of fan-funded tracks. Some great bits, some instrumentals, worth hearing but not a critical addition to their canon.

In 2015 they released "The Island Of The Hopeful Monsters (Lost Demos From The 80's & The 90's)", which is what it says on the tin. Pretty inconsequential.

They've also put out a new live album from their 2017 tour and an old live album from 1987 but I didn't get those.

I wish they had a download store. I’m not quite at the level of wanting a physical copy of the new one and it’s not on bandcamp emusic etc.